Brick by Brick

A recent study from Nielson//Netratings found that there are more Republicans than Democrats online. Of U.S. adults surveyed, 36.6 percent identified themselves as Republicans, 30.8 percent as Democrats and 17.3 percent as Independents.

This makes perfect sense given that other studies have shown that Republicans tend to earn more money than Democrats. The more money you make the more likely you are to have Internet access.

Here are some other tidbits from the study:

• The websites that attracted the highest percentage of Republicans were RushLimbaugh.com (84.8%), NewsMax.com (65.4%), BillOReilly.com (65.4%) and the Drudge Report (59%).
• The websites that attracted the most Democrats were BlackAmericaWeb.com (79.8%), AOL Black Voices (64.8%), BET.com (58.6%) and Salon (55.3%).
• The Wall Street Journal was the most Republican newspaper in terms of demographic breakdown (40.2% Republican and 25.8% Democrat) while the New York Times skewed the most toward Democrats (52.3% Democrat and 18.3% Republican).

Based on the sites named, it’s clear the survey only looked at mainstream media sites and didn’t dive into the blogosphere. Be interesting to see the breakdown for the most popular political blogs.

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Inspired by our meeting last week with LA Times reporter T. Christian  Miller, I decided to take a closer look at some of our data from the newspaper study we conducted this summer.  I wanted to see how the online versions of newspapers are performing compared to their print circulations.  The findings were interesting and indicate that there are many  factors besides Web features that play a role in making a newspaper website successful.

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Erin had a little free time today so we decided to build on our campaign study and do some quick research to see which US Senate candidates had the most popular websites.   Please note that the site rank and reach per million data included in the table below is taken from Alexa.  We included the blog column based on our own research.

Note that many people consider Alexa data to be extremely flawed. So take our findings as anecdotes.  No one should write their PHD dissertation based on what you see here.

Before listing the data, here are some observations about the findings:

(1) The sites of CT candidates Ned Lamont and Senator Joe Lieberman are #1 and #2 in traffic due to the intense amount of interest their primary battle attracted both in the blogosphere and in the mainstream press.   Their sites are well ahead of those of any other candidates.

(2) 13 of the top 20 (65%) sites that attracted the most traffic were run by Democrats.  Six (30%) belonged to Republican candidates and one (5%) was run by an Independent (Lieberman).

(3) The least popular sites were equally split among the parties. Ten of the sites belong to Republican and ten belong to Democrats.

(4) 14 of the 20 (70%) most popular sites included blogs.  Only six of the 20 (30%) least popular sites had blogs.  While factors like how competitive a race is and the size of the state undoubtedly play a big role in traffic figures, I think it is pretty clear that blogs do play a role in driving traffic.

Following are the results:

Candidate Name	Party	Site Rank	Reach per million	Blog?
Lamont, Ned	D-CT	69,223	27	Yes
Lieberman, Joe	I-CT	106,399	19	Yes
Webb, Jim	D-VA	252,000	5.3	Yes
Clinton, Hillary	D-NY	259,810	4.05	No
Allen, George	R-VA	318,516	4.15	Yes
Harris, Katherine	R-FL	333,619	3.65	No
Casey, Bob	D-PA	338,532	3.55	Yes
Santorum, Rick	R-PA	373,240	2.85	Yes
Kennedy, Ted	D-MA	384,977	3.3	Yes
McCaskill, Claire	D-MO	451,708	2.75	Yes
Tester, Jon	D-MT	476,381	2.15	Yes
Ashdown, Pete	D-UT	476,452	2.05	Yes
Klobuchar, Amy	D-MN	498,905	1.85	No
Cantwell, Maria	D-WA	517,918	1.9	Yes
Brown, Sherrod	D-OH	539,171	1.8	Yes
McGavick, Mike	R-WA	562,788	1.5	Yes
Corker, Bob	R-TN	584,685	1.55	No
Ford, Harold Jr.	D-TN	609,777	2	No
Carter, Jack	D-NV	642,398	1.1	Yes
Burns, Conrad	R-MT	828,534	0.8	No
Bouchard, Mike	R-MI	991,558	0.75	Yes
Tarrant, Rich	R-VT	997,650	0.55	Yes
Nelson, Bill	D-FL	1,008,100	0.6	No
Dewine, Mike	R-OH	1,030,216	0.7	No
Pederson , Jim	D-AZ	1,061,624	0.5	No
Raese, Jim	R-WV	1,088,769	0.4	No
Kean, Tom	R-NJ	1,158,875	0.45	Yes
Kennedy, Mark	R-MN	1,158,875	0.45	Yes
Hay Bright, Jean	D-ME	1,229,651	0.35	Yes
Chafee, Lincoln	R-RI	1,272,159	0.45	No
Talent, Jim	R-MO	1,370,825	0.5	No
Radnofsky, Barbara Ann	D-TX	1,425,639	0.3	Yes
Kyl, Jon	R-AZ	1,433,237	0.45	No
Stabenow, Debbie	D-MI	1,459,546	0.45	Yes
Whitehouse, Sheldon	D-RI	1,663,920	0.25	Yes
Mountjoy, Dick	R-CA	1,727,518	0.25	No
Ricketts, Pete	R-NE	1,870,334	0.25	No
Spencer, John	R-NY	1,919,976	0.35	Yes
Byrd, Robert	D-WV	1,989,144	0.2	No
Fleming, Erik	D-MS	2,098,929	0.15	No
Ensign, John	R-NV	2,156,985	0.2	Yes
Steele, Michael	R-MD	2,776,888	0.2	Yes
Groutage, Dale	D-WY	2,872,933	0.1	No
Hatch, Orrin	R-UT	4,203,588	0.1	Yes
Ting, Jan	R-DE	4,931,853	0.05	No
Nelson, Ben	D-NE	5,608,587	0.05	No
Kohl, Herb	D-WI	5,618,551	0.1	No
Conrad, Kent	D-ND	5,621,699	0.05	No
Carper, Thomas	D-DE	5,877,096	0.045	No
Menendez, Bob	D-NJ	6,152,317	0.045	Yes
Hutchinson, Kay Bailey	R-TX	6,530,867	N/A	No
Grotberg, Dwight	R-ND	6,050,491	0.045	No
Akaka, Daniel	R-HI	N/A	N/A	No
Bingaman, Jeff	D-NM	N/A	N/A	No
Chase, Ken	R-MA	N/A	N/A	No
Feinstein, Diane	D-CA	N/A	N/A	No
Lugar, Dick	R-IN	N/A	N/A	No
McCulloch, Allen	R-NM	N/A	N/A	Yes

A $500 million to $1 billion problem, depending on whom you ask.

In a front page article in The Washington Post, 'Click Fraud' Threatens Foundation of Web Ad, staff writer Sara Kehaulani Goo discusses the mechanics of click fraud, the new forms of click fraud — the fast growing "pay to read" and "pay to click" rings of individuals and companies around the world — and the new lawsuit against Google.

 Some figures from the article worth filing away:

• Google and Yahoo own 70% of all web searches in the  U.S.
• About 40 percent of all Internet ads are clickable text ads (the advertiser only pays when the ad is clicked on)
• Thirty-nine percent, or $1.04 billion, of Google's 3rd quarter revenues derived from affliate networks, website that allow Google text ads
• Click fraud hurts mortgage, insurance, real estate, legal and travel businesses the most

Yankee Group estimates that fraud is involved in 10% of clicks on text ads, or a $500 million problem.  Others estimate the problem is even worse, perhaps as bad as $1 billion — affecting 12 to 30 percent of all text ad clicks.  Google claims the problem is less that 10 percent.

Yankee Group argues that without more agressive measures to validate ad clicks, "fraud could undermine the the entire business model of Internet search engines by causing advertisers to lose confidence."

Virtual gaming fever has hit the MacArthur Foundation, resulting in the philanthropic organization awarding Indiana University professor Edward Castronova a $240,000 grant to build a Second Life -esque virtual world fashioned after the plays of Shakespeare. The project, entitled "Arden: The World of Shakespeare," is meant to let Castronova and his research team delve into online behaviors by conducting ongoing social experiments online.

In an article by CNET's Daniel Terdiman, the professor explains that the early designs are influenced by a "Richard III" theme, which gives designers and prospective gamers the necessary historical context needed to spark the imagination.

Castrova, an Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University, is the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier, as well as the director of the Synthetic Worlds Initiative. The Synthetic Worlds Initiative was founded in 2004 to "promote research on synthetic worlds." The research center has both a website and a blog .